At least 70 people in Hebei province formed a human wall and signed an appeal letter to oppose the abduction of a 58-year-old Falun Gong practitioner in mid-June. This is the latest in a string of cases of Chinese citizens publicly voicing support for Falun Gong, particularly in northeastern China. The petition is the fourth to come to light in the last two months.

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DERA ISMAIL KHAN/ISLAMABAD (Reuters) - Entrenched in secret mountain bases on Pakistan's border with Afghanistan, Uighur fighters are gearing up for retribution against China to avenge the deaths of comrades

China, Pakistan's only major ally in the region, has long urged Islamabad to weed out what it says are militants from its western region of Xinjiang, who are holed up in a lawless tribal belt, home to a lethal mix of militant groups, including the Taliban and al Qaeda.

A mass stabbing at a train station in the Chinese city of Kunming two weeks ago, in which at least 29 people were killed, has put a new spotlight on the largely Muslim Uighur ethnic minority from Xinjiang, where Beijing says armed groups seek to establish an independent state called East Turkestan.

Beijing has called the Kunming bloodshed a "terrorist attack" carried out by militants, and says separatists operate training camps across the rugged border which abuts Pakistan andAfghanistan.

In a rare but brief interview, Abdullah Mansour, leader of the rebel Turkestan Islamic Party, said it was his holy duty to fight the Chinese.

"The fight against China is our Islamic responsibility and we have to fulfill it," he said from an undisclosed location.

"China is not only our enemy, but it is the enemy of all Muslims ... We have plans for many attacks in China," he said, speaking in the Uighur language through an interpreter.

"We have a message to China that East Turkestan people and other Muslims have woken up. They cannot suppress us and Islam any more. Muslims will take revenge."

Mansour spoke on a crackly line using a mobile phone with an Afghan SIM card in a brief statement which gave Reuters no chance to ask about the Kunming attack.

The separatists hide mainly in the troubled North Waziristan region, where they are treated by their Pakistani Taliban hosts as guests of honor, militant and Pakistani intelligence sources say.

The Turkestan Islamic Party, which China equates with the East Turkestan Islamic Movement (ETIM), keeps a low profile in Pakistan. Unlike the Taliban, it almost never posts videos promoting its activities or ideology. Its exact size is unknown and some experts dispute its ability to orchestrate attacks in China, or that is exists at all as a cohesive group.

Getting hold of leaders such as Mansour is almost impossible and interviews are usually very brief and conducted from undisclosed locations through a Pashto-speaking translator.

Pakistani intelligence sources say they number about 400 fighters, and are clustered around the remote Mir Ali area, sharing bases with other foreign insurgents, particularly Uzbeks, who speak a similar language.

In Afghanistan, two security reports sent to expatriates working there this year warned of attacks on a Chinese hotel, Chinese companies and other targets in Kabul. There have been no attacks so far.

According to Afghan Taliban sources, there are about 250 Uighur militants in Afghanistan's Nuristan and Kunar provinces.

"They live here with us but are always concerned about their people and mission in China. They are nice people, good Muslims and the best fighters," a senior Taliban commander said.

He added that Uighur militants were not fond of guns, and resorted mostly to knives and daggers.

China has stepped up security in Xinjiang after a vehicle ploughed into tourists on the edge of Beijing's Tiananmen Square in October, killing the three people in the car and two bystanders. China labeled it a suicide attack by militants from the region.

Mansour released a Uighur-language video weeks after the Tiananmen incident, calling it a "jihadi operation" by its holy warriors.

SASFOR's insight:

In a rare but brief interview, Abdullah Mansour, leader of the rebel Turkestan Islamic Party, said it was his holy duty to fight the Chinese.

As students and activists begin their third day occupying Taiwan’s Legislative Yuan in protest of the ruling Kuomintang party’s decision to pass a controversial China trade pact without the agreed-upon review, a report from the Economist summarizes...

A recent terror attack at China’s Kunming Railway Station (spring city of China) by knife-wielding attackers resulted in the massacre of 33 people (28 civilians and five terrorists) and injured scores of others. It is believed to have been orchestrated by, at least, 10 male and female terrorists, leaving a gory scene at the train terminal with photos and videos showing bodies, pools of blood and abandoned luggage scattered across the terminal floor. Chinese authorities are terming this an “organised, premeditated, violent terrorist attack.” The witnesses have described the assailants to be dressed in black, charging through the station and slashing indiscriminately with large knives and machetes.

The attack follows an earlier act of terror in October last year when militants drove a jeep through pedestrians in the ‘Forbidden City’, killing two tourists as well as the three occupants of the vehicle –– leaving another 40 people injured.

These despicable killings have been blamed on militants from the western region of Xinjiang, which is home to tensions between the government and separatists, who feel that their culture is being overrun by the Han Chinese. The region borders Afghanistan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Pakistan and its eight million Turkish-speaking Uyghurs are an ethnic group that share close linguistic and cultural links with Central Asia, distinct from the majority Han community. Several attacks have already been blamed on militants residing there, exhibiting anger and dissatisfaction against the Chinese government.

In the wake of these attacks, the Chinese president has instructed law enforcement agencies to “severely punish, in accordance with the law, the violent terrorists and resolutely crack down on those who have been swollen with a rampant attitude.” He has ordered firm suppression of the momentum that the terrorists are trying to generate.

Pakistan has “strongly condemned the barbaric terrorist attack at a train station in the Yunnan province of China” and has “extended all possible cooperation to China in combating this menace.” The Chinese would definitely be requiring Pakistani support in countering the Eastern Turkistan Islamic Movement (ETIM), which is considered to be the source of such attacks.

On the political front, the Chinese government is planning ambitious social, economic and political reforms outlined during November’s Third Plenary Session to attempt to bridge the widening economic gap between its western and eastern parts. Now it is up to President Xi Jinping and his administration to implement these reforms, while managing all the inherited pressures of China’s economic slowdown.

In the course of implementation, China is likely to experience frustrations in trying to balance change against growing social and political constraints and is hence, likely to gradually shift away from the earlier consensus-based decision-making to a more decisive model. An incremental and cautious approach is needed, both in applying reforms domestically and in trying to define a sphere of influence in its neighbourhood.

From the look of things, the Communist Party is showing signs of moving beyond its model of collective leadership to build a more consolidated party centered on President Xi. Deng Xiaoping’s strongman leadership model has become attractive, based on the belief that it would help the country take critical decisions at a time of some unprecedented domestic and international challenges.

SASFOR's insight:

"While condemning the dastardly terrorist acts, China has to ensure that it does not place the onus of hatred generated by these attacks on one ethnicity or religion. The Chinese leadership needs to address the situation with its traditional vision and calm; much more than a kneejerk reaction is required. Brutal repression is likely to generate further tensions and complications and give an opportunity to external actors to voice their concerns. The response has to be calibrated with an amalgamation of economic incentives, religious freedoms and effective implementation of the rule of law. Is President Xi up to the challenge?"

Over the past two centuries, Takfiri (Salafi) Wahhabis have been desecrating and demolishing some of the most sacred sites held dear by Muslims the world over. But it is strange that while Muslims may decry the desecration of mosques by others (the Babri Mosque episode is an example), most believers remain mysteriously quiet over the sacrilege committed by the Wahhabi\Takfiri\Saudi combine. In the early 19th century Wahhabi raiders attacked the sacred resting place of Imam Husain (AS) in Karbala al-Muallah, Iraq, a site revered by Muslims across the globe. Around the same time the Baqi cemetery in Madina al-Munawwara containing the graves of some of the closest members of the Holy Prophet’s (PBUH) family, as well as his companions and later Muslim luminaries, were destroyed. Around a century later, in the 1920s, this ugly history repeated itself as the ascendant Saudis under Najdi ruler Abdul Aziz ibn Saud, who would occupy Hejaz and other parts of the Arabian peninsula and create the modern Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, entered the holy cities of Madina and Makkah al-Mukarrama.

LAHORE: Muttahida Quami Movement (MQM) chief Altaf Hussain said that the entire country has to unite on a common front to fight terrorism.Speaking to MQM leaders and activists over the phone at the Sufiya-e-Kiram Conference organised by his party in Lahore, the MQM chief said that if terrorism was

All the signs point towards the government inching slowly but surely towards a recognition of the inevitability of a military campaign if the current on-again-off-again talks with the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) fail. Defence Minister Khwaja Asif, widely considered till now amongst the

A series of high level discussions point to the imminent demise of the peace process as it stands, and the reorganisation of negotiations between the government and the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) directly. Major (retd) Amir from the government negotiating committee has said he believes the

KABUL: The brother of President Hamid Karzai dropped out of Afghanistan’s election on Thursday and endorsed former foreign minister Zalmai Rassoul, an announcement seen as signalling the current leader’s preferred successor.The first major move in the election campaign before polling

China's Modern Martyrs: From Mao to Now (Part 3) Catholic World Report The Maoist era marks one of the darkest hours of the Church's history in China, and Chinese Catholics are begging to let the world know about the sacrifices of holy men and...

Al Jazeera America Uighur activist's detention rallies China's dissidents to his cause Al Jazeera America Uighur separatist groups such as the East Turkestan Islamic Movement have been implicated in sporadic attacks and riots, and the United States...

Twitter users in Turkey reported widespread outages on Friday, hours after Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan threatened to shut down access to the social media platform as he battles a damaging corruption scandal.

On 7 February 2014, the United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC) released a report regarding the human rights situation in North Korea. The chief author of the report was Michael Kirby, a retired Judge of the High Court of Australia.

A Commission of Inquiry was created by the United Nations Human Rights Council to investigate “widespread and grave violations of human rights” in North Korea. To accomplish this, the Commission questioned 80 witnesses and experts in public hearings held in four countries. The Commission also conducted over 240 confidential interviews of witnesses and experts who feared reprisals against them or their family from North Korea. The Commission also requested submissions, reviewed previously published findings, and worked with States and international organizations.

Throughout the entire process and despite numerous invitations from the Commission, North Korea refused to cooperate with the Commission. North Korea refused to allow the Commission into their country and did not respond to invitations to participate in the research or drafting of the report.

The report concluded by stating that human rights abuses that in many cases rise to the level of crimes against humanity are being committed in North Korea. The report called on the United Nations Security Council to refer the situation to the International Criminal Court. On 17 March 2014, the government of the People’s Republic of China (PRC) demonstrated it would continue to protect North Korea by refusing to accept the report.

SASFOR's insight:

Tibetan Centre for Human Rights and Democracy (TCHRD) tries correctly to link China's motives to HR violation in Tibet, "There are many explanations for why the PRC took such a strong position against human rights. One is that the PRC is implementing similar tactics in Tibet. Like in North Korea,crimes against humanity are being committed in Tibet. To avoid international scrutiny the PRC has prevented diplomats, UN representatives, and foreign journalists from entering Tibet. The PRC has been so successful at blocking access to Tibet that there are less foreign journalists in Tibet than North Korea. By the PRC’s standards, their success in blocking access to Tibet guarantees impunity and deniability for crimes against humanity committed in Tibet."

the Diplomat Turkestan Islamic Party Expresses Support for Kunming Attack the Diplomat However, the Turkestan Islamic Party (which Beijing conflates with its predecessor, the East Turkestan Islamic Movement) has expressed its approval of the attack...

The Lord gave us some of the world’s most fascinating rivers, the tallest mountains, and a broad expanse of the bountiful sea.

.....................................................................

Whenever something new comes up, trust us to remain true to this inheritance. Take the current split in the world of Islam, the split playing out most violently in the killing fields of Syria. All the conservative Arab states, with no small help from Turkey, are ranged on one side, supporting the opposition to Bashar Al-Assad, and a slightly radical coalition on the other side represented by the Assad regime, and its principal backers: Iran, Hezbollah and Russia. And Pakistan has to be on the conservative side.

What may or may not have been agreed with our friends from the holy kingdom we do not know. But in a joint communiqué we have called for an interim regime in Syria which amounts to saying that Assad must go. And our friends have given us a cash transfer which has helped bolster the falling fortunes of the rupee. So it doesn’t take much to conclude that our sympathies now lie with the anti-Assad camp. What is also fairly visible is the coolness which has descended on our ties with Iran – this for no interest of our own but merely to please our desert friends.

Bashar Al-Assad is no angel but then who is? Meanwhile the opposition to him is attracting the worst extremist elements in the Islamic pantheon, kindred in spirit to what used to be the Afghan mujahideen. From across the world of Islam the worst bigots were drawn to the Afghan ‘jihad’ as they are now being drawn to the Syrian civil war and Pakistan, thanks to its historic conservatism and its desert friends, finds itself in this august company.

SASFOR's insight:

" About the one bold thing Pakistan ever did in its history was under Zulfikar Ali Bhutto when at the time of the 1973 Arab-Israeli war PAF fighter pilots were sent to Syria where they took to the skies and performed meritorious service, earning the undying gratitude of Bashar’s father, the ‘Lion of Damascus’ Hafez Al-Assad. If we wrack our minds other instances too might come to the fore but this stands out. But then that was Bhutto who, for all his faults, was no run-of-the-mill politician. If only he had been able to check his overweening ambition and live with the Baloch nationalist leadership the history of Pakistan might have been different."

Cairo (AFP) – Gunmen killed six soldiers at a Cairo checkpoint Saturday in a brazen attack which the military blamed on the Muslim Brotherhood movement of Egypt’s deposed Islamist president Mohamed Morsi.

MITHI/ISLAMABAD/ RAWALPINDI: Information Minister Senator Pervaiz Rashid on Sunday said that Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif had cancelled important engagements and would visit Tharparkar today (Monday) to meet drought-affected people. Talking to various private news channels, he said that Thar

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan has hailed progress in peace talks with the counry’s main Taliban faction, but attacks claimed by mysterious splinter factions are threatening to undermine the process.The Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) declared a one-month ceasefire last weekend, but that was swiftly

BOGOTA: Colombians vote on Sunday for a new congress that will tackle legislation for the next president and play a historic role in creating laws to end five decades of conflict if peace is reached with Marxist FARC rebels.The ballot is likely to consolidate President Juan Manuel Santos as the

For the past few weeks, it is with consistent and increasing frustration that I write in this space. It appears to me that the weekly scribble is only done to waste newsprint as they are words having no impact. I wonder if others like me, who indulge in this weekly exercise, share this

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